This invention relates to systems for displaying and controlling inventory of merchandise or component parts.
Consumers today have little loyalty to a particular retail store. They can generally find the brand name products they seek at any one of several stores. They expect retailers to equip and operate their stores in a manner allowing consumers to quickly dash into a store, find the product they seek waiting for them attractively displayed on a shelf or a rack, purchase the product at a very competitive price and be on their way with little interruption to their day.
An empty shelf typically results in a lost sales opportunity for the retailer. If consumers do not find the product they seek on display ready for purchase, they will quickly move on to another retailer. It is imperative, therefore, that a retailer have an inventory control and replenishment system and method that keeps products on display where the consumer can find them.
Keeping prices low necessitates operating a retail store in an effective and efficient manner so that costs associated with sales are minimized. Wages expended in paying employees to monitor inventory and replenish the displays with products are a significant component of the retailer""s cost of sales. Employee wages for time spent keeping the displayed product neatly arranged with labels facing the consumer also add to the cost of sales.
Another unfortunate component of the cost of sales for retailers today is the cost of special measures taken to prevent shoplifting. In some cases special security devices having a small electronic circuit that will set off an alarm if removed from the store without the circuit being disabled by a cashier are affixed to individual product packages. For very small items, though, use of such devices on individual packages is impractical or impossible. With such small items there is a risk that enterprising shoplifters will steal not just one item, but the entire display. This risk necessitates designing the displays such that the hangers or racks used to display the product are very difficult to remove, and makes it necessary in some instances to affix electronic security devices to the hangers or racks.
What is needed is an improved merchandising method and associated equipment that keep products attractively displayed for the consumer with minimal expenditures of employee labor for monitoring, replenishing, facing and arranging the product. The method and equipment must also include provisions for controlling shoplifting in a cost effective manner. It is also highly desirable for the merchandising method and equipment to be compatible with methods and equipment already in use by retailers so that initial and life cycle costs of installing and operating the improved method and equipment are minimized.
Our invention provides such an improved merchandising method and apparatus through the use of product displays having a track for aligning product packages in a linear fashion, and an electronic monitoring and transmitting device in the product displays that detects a linear position of one or more product packages with respect to the tracks and generates a signal representing the number of product packages still remaining on the shelf. The signal also preferably includes an identifier code, which may include a universal product identifier code (UPC) or a serial number of the track, that can be utilized to pinpoint the location of that particular track within the store.
The signal may be transmitted wirelessly as a radio frequency signal that can be received by antennas permanently installed within the store and connected to a central in-store inventory control system and database. Alternatively, the signal may be transmitted by radio frequency to short-range hand-held scanners used by employees as they travel through aisles in the store to inventory the quantity and locations of products on display.
Our improved method and apparatus utilize the signals representing product type, location, and quantity as part of an inventory control and replenishment system that keeps products on the shelf for consumers with less employee labor than is required with prior retail store operating practices.
Some embodiments of our invention include features for automatically facing the product packages with respect to the tracks so that consumers can read the product labels, without employee labor, thereby reducing the employee cost to attractively arrange and maintain the product displays.
Some embodiments of the product display apparatus of our invention include mounting features that lock the tracks into a supporting structure in such a manner that shoplifters will have a very difficult time stealing an entire track and its content.
In highly preferred embodiments of our invention, the electronic device utilized for monitoring linear position of the product and inventory control will also generate a second signal for triggering electronic security devices should a shoplifter attempt to remove a product display track from the store.
These and other aspects, advantages, and novel features of our invention will be readily apparent upon consideration of the following drawings and detailed description of preferred embodiments.